Rhode Island Recycling 5025 Initiative
The goal of the 5025 initiative is to increase the amount of recycling in Rhode Island to at least 50% by 2025 by raising awareness of this issue and of the opportunity that we as Rhode Islanders have on making a positive impact.
The following are opportunities for commercial and residential members of society that can be taken to have an instrumental impact on increasing the amount of recycling in Rhode Island.
Food Waste Recycling Options:
Business\Institutional
The following organizations are available for commercial clients. Please check out the links below for more information.
They work with farms and pick up scraps from a variety of businesses, including higher education institutions, restaurants, and hospitals for use in composting throughout the state.
The farm accepts clean materials free of contaminates for use in organic composting.
Residential
The following organizations are available for residential food scrap pickup.
This further helps to divert this valuable resource from waste stream that would otherwise go to the central landfill.
Please check out the links below for the organization that serves your community. The more we recycle food waste, the more nutrients can be provided for green composting.
Together we can reverse this trend and make a positive impact!
Groundwork RI’s Harvest Cycle compost service
Non-food waste Recycling
Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation
Please check out the link for more information on all things related to recycling.
The Resource Recovery’s 1,040 acre facility in Johnston is home to five major operations:
- Materials Recycling Facility for bin/cart recyclables
- Small Vehicle Area for special/bulky item drop-off
- Eco-Depot for household hazardous waste
- Compost for leaf & yard debris
- Central Landfill for trash
Additional Recycling Resources
Beyond Plastics is a nationwide project based at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, that pairs the wisdom and experience of environmental policy experts with the energy and creativity of college students to build a vibrant and effective anti-plastics movement.
Their mission is to end plastic pollution by being a catalyst for change at every level of our society. They use their deep policy and advocacy expertise to build a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet, and ourselves, from the plastic pollution crisis.
Earth911 is a free online resource that helps consumers match their values and purchase behaviors, while adapting sustainable and eco-friendly practices to drive impactful changes in the environment.
Plastic bags, wraps, and films can’t be recycled in your curbside recycling bins. But, you can take some of these items to local retail stores where they collect plastic grocery bags for recycling. Any package that you see with the How2Recycle Store Drop-Off label can be recycled this way.
Peanut Hotline- 1800-828-2214
Loose fill packing peanuts- There is a national reuse program for this type of polystyrene loose fill. Call the Peanut Hotline to find the nearest location that accepts packing peanuts for reuse. These nationwide locations, primarily pack-and-ship stores or gift shops, use the returned loose fill. If you have large quantities of packing peanuts, check with the local collection center before dropping off the material.
Adding standardized labels on your bins is the #1 action we can all take to fix U.S. recycling. Click on the link above to learn more on how we can make a difference by recycling the right way.
What is TerraCycle?
TerraCycle® is a social enterprise Eliminating the Idea of Waste®. In 21 countries, we tackle the issue from many angles. We have found that nearly everything we touch can be recycled and collect typically non-recyclable items through national, first-of-their-kind recycling platforms.
Leading companies work with us to take hard-to-recycle materials from our programs, such as ocean plastic, and turn them into new products, and our new Loop platform aims to change the way the world shops with favorite brands in refillable packaging offered with convenience and style.
With your help, we’ve diverted millions of pounds of valuable resources from landfills all over the world, and we’re just getting started.
What you can do:
Ask your employer\local library\favorite business to agree to become a Public Drop off location for one or more types of typically hard to recycle items with the Zero Waste Box program. A variety of options are available including: Cereal bags, candy and snack wrappers, coffee pods, standard alkaline batteries and toner cartridges to name a few.
There is a fee for the Zero Waste Boxes but this includes the cost of the box, shipping and pays for the service of Terracycle in processing and recycling the collected waste.
The following are a few of the local drop off locations for each of the type of products listed. Terracycle offers nearly 200 brand specific recycling options as well. Those options shown below are open to all brands.
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What you can recycle
Program accepted waste: Biotrue® ONEday brand contact lenses and blister packs, as well as other Bausch + Lomb brand contact lenses and blister packs. We will also accept contact lenses and blister packs from all brands.
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Colgate® Oral Care Recycling Program
TerraCycle® and Colgate have partnered to create a national recycling network for all brands of used or empty oral care products and packaging.
What you can recycle
All brands of used or empty oral care products and packaging
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Gillette® Razor Recycling Program
What you can recycle
All brands of blades and razors (systems and disposable units, and replaceable-blade cartridge units), rigid plastic packaging, and flexible plastic bag packaging
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RB Health & Nutrition Recycling Program
What you can recycle
- Vitamins, minerals, and supplements packaging: blister packs, tubes, bottles, caps, lids, cans, boxes
- Sexual health and well-being packaging: tubes, bottles, caps, lids, wrappers, cans, boxes
- Cough, cold, flu, sore throat, and nasal care packaging: blister packs, tubes, bottles, spray bottles, caps, lids
- Infant formula and child nutrition packaging: tubs, bottles, caps, lids, cans, boxes
- Personal care and foot care packaging: tubes, bottles, caps, lids, plastic packaging
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Recycle all non-recyclable Tide fabric care products and packaging through this program
What you can recycle
All non-recyclable fabric care products and packaging from brands Tide, Gain, Downy & Dreft, including plastic components (dispensing cup, bag, nozzle, nozzle clip), and plastic packaging wrap, flexible plastic bags, rigid plastic tubs and lids, and Tide To Go pen
Note: This program does NOT include Tide Wipes.
